Dodger Stadium Sewage Leak Ends Game on Foul Note

The puns were all too easy, but suffice to say the Los Angeles Dodgers were happy to take Wednesday’s 4-3 exhibition victory over the Angels and clear out of Dodger Stadium. Same goes for the fans.

In fact, the game was called after five innings, when a burst water main flooded a large swath of warning track, the third-base camera well and part of the stands with sewage — creating an unusual groundskeeping challenge amid the stench. Two hours later, J.P. Hoorstra, MLB reporter for the Southern California News Group, tweeted, “A vacuum has done quite well improving the aesthetics on the field. It still stinks, and I’m told they had to shut off the water valve on the [left] side of the stadium to prevent further flooding.”

According to a report at ESPN.com, more than one Dodgers player used the word “nasty” to describe the foul odor emitting from the gurgling pool on the warning track. “Apparently, there was a pipe backup on two different levels of the stadium,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten said after the game. “We don’t know exactly where the backup was or what caused it. It had something to do with a main pipe here, as well as a main pipe outside the stadium.”

Only two MLB ballparks still in use predate Dodger Stadium, which debuted in 1962. The Dodgers open the regular season by hosting the rival San Francisco Giants tomorrow night.